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. 2016 Feb 2:6:20317.
doi: 10.1038/srep20317.

Levels and potential health risk of heavy metals in marketed vegetables in Zhejiang, China

Xiao-Dong Pan  1 , Ping-Gu Wu  1 , Xian-Gen Jiang  1
Affiliations

Levels and potential health risk of heavy metals in marketed vegetables in Zhejiang, China

Xiao-Dong Pan et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The present study analyzed 5785 vegetables for concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Ni and Hg, and estimated the health risk to local consumers by deterministic (point estimates) approaches. Levels of elements varied in different vegetables. Average levels of As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Hg and Pb were 0.013, 0.017, 0.057, 0.002, 0.094 and 0.034 mg/kg (fresh weight), respectively. The samples with 0.25% for Cd and 1.56% for Pb were exceeding the maximum allowable concentrations (MACs) set by the Chinese Health Ministry. No obvious regular geographical distribution for these metals in vegetables was found in areas of Zhejiang, China. The mean and 97.5 percentile levels of heavy metal and metalloid were used to present the mean and high exposure assessment. The health indices (HIs) were less than the threshold of 1 both in mean and high exposure assessment. It indicates that for the general people there is very low health risk to As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Ni and Hg by vegetable intake.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The concentration of heavy metals in 28 species of vegetables (fresh weight).
Figure 2
Figure 2. The geographical spatial distribution of the As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb and Ni in vegetables from Zhejiang province, China (drawn by software of MapGIS K9 SP2).
Figure 3
Figure 3. The map of the sampling locations in Zhejiang province (drawn by software of MapGIS K9 SP2).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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